Despite unprecedented political chaos, constitutional crisis on several occasions, and also civil-military rift in the last decade, Pakistan somewhat twice enjoyed smooth transition of governments and respect of parliamentary proceedings while political rivals kept animosity at the side. In Pakistan, the blessings of liberty have never been seen in full flow but with the revival of the parliamentary system in 2008, the country did show little progress. Important legislation such as the 18th amendment was passed to empower people’s representatives. However, things changed in 2018 when populist leader Imran Khan was elected as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan.
From day one, the PTI government had rejected the thought of sitting with the Opposition on issues of national interest while the culture of hate and abuse was fully endorsed inside the elected houses. Instead of consulting the Opposition on crucial legislation, the PTI government bulldozed several bills to witch-hunt the Opposition. Anyone who questioned the PTI government’s policy — be it a journalist, political activist or even a member of the Opposition — was called a traitor. Khan’s government showed shades of tyranny and endorsed politics of extreme resentment and polarisation.
Criticism of any government’s policy is a healthy part of a democratic system. For that very reason, a strong Opposition acts like the heart of democracy for accountability, scrutiny and, in other words, checks and balances. In PTI’s time in power, the opinion of the Opposition never saw the light of the day. The government conveniently portrayed the Opposition as traitors, rejecting any crucial point of view raised in the national interest. Having lost their majority in the parliament now, PTI MNAs have tendered resignations, stressing that they would not work with the new government. It looks like Khan enjoyed absolute power, and clearly is not willing to work together with other political parties.
Instead of reaching a consensus on issues of national importance, the PTI government had promulgated at least 54 presidential ordinances in the first three years of its time in power. For back-to-back ordinances in a parliamentary setup, there is indeed little justification in any democracy. The blessing of democracy comes from debate, difference and even diversity, not by promulgation of ordinances.
On several occasions, Khan has praised western democracies for upholding parliamentary norms and values. But it is indeed shocking how his advisers did not remind him of the precedence where leaders choose to gracefully resign once they lose the majority in the parliament. He should have gracefully resigned or faced the first no-confidence motion without attacking the sanctity of the Constitution. His advisers kept on adding fuel to the fire. It was easy to quote the West without applying on its very own government.
Imran Khan’s government also deployed several tactics to control the truth and endorse fake news, something which tyrants were famous for. By introducing the Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules, 2020, the PTI government was deciding to monitor and restrict digital content and punish social media companies that didn’t comply with government requests. On many occasions, PTI ministers were seen not just endorsing but also spreading fake news.
Khan is sent home because of record breaking incompetence, serial mismanagement in the economic sector, disregard of parliamentary norms on several occasions, bulldozing draconian bills like those concerning FATF, mixed messaging in foreign policy, corruption scandals from LNG to wheat — and not any foreign conspiracy. A simple way to distract the people from their economic woes was to raise the idea of a foreign conspiracy. It is again a powerful narrative used to mislead the people. In the last three and a half years, Imran Khan has damaged Pakistan’s economic and political fabric, but his biggest target has been the youth, which represent more than 60% of the country’s total population. Now part of his cult, they only see Khan as the true leader of the country.
With empty opposition benches in the parliament, the shades of tyranny and politics of extreme resentment will be seen on the streets of the country. Tough times for Pakistan in the future.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 21st, 2022.
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